An Evaluation of Alternative Energies or fuels for Future Deep Sea Container Shipping

Abstract

Concerning the container shipping industry, two problems have been raised in recent years. One is the increasing bunker price and the other is more and more serious environmental problem. There have been some solutions for these two problems such as slow steaming, strict regulation or using low sulphur fuels. However, all of these solutions have their own limitations, which prompt the authors of this thesis to look for another solution: finding an alternative shipping fuel or energy for deep sea container shipping industry in the future. After assessing potential shipping fuels and selection criteria, the authors find out that nuclear power, LNG and renewable energy such as wind and solar power can be seen as the potential candidates. The result contains three parts: a comparison table of fuels under different criteria, a survey followed by analytical hierarchy process analysis and interviews with professional people. After a deep analysis of three findings, it is able to see that nuclear power is the most feasible alternative in terms of the academic research. However people still worry about its high initial cost and safety issues. Regarding the high initial cost, the authors made a calculation to show that although the capital cost for one nuclear ship is high, nuclear ship still shows economic benefits when counting on a fleet on a certain route during a life cycle. Regarding the safety issues, the authors find that it is not technical but emotional problem, which make the safety problem become solvable. In general, using the nuclear power could be the most feasible solution for future deep sea container shipping sector.